A newly-painted mural by street artist Hebru Brantley is shown Sept 12, 2018, at Wood Street and Milwaukee Avenue. An earlier version was destroyed by city workers who mistook it for graffiti. The new mural is funded by Wicker Park Bucktown Special Service Area #33.

A newly-painted mural by street artist Hebru Brantley is shown Sept 12, 2018, at Wood Street and Milwaukee Avenue. An earlier version was destroyed by city workers who mistook it for graffiti. The new mural is funded by Wicker Park Bucktown Special Service Area #33. (Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune)

Elvia MalagonChicago Tribune

Two unlikely street artists — a Chicago alderman and a city commissioner — took turns Wednesday morning spraying white paint into a stencil of a man to drum up support for a public art registry that could become city law as soon as next week.

The figure Ald. Brian Hopkins and Mark Kelly, the city’s cultural affairs commissioner, painted was next to another spray-painted man holding a can of spray paint and wearing a “Streets & Sanitation” jacket with the city logo. The word “ART” was painted above the figures on an exterior wall of Cards Against Humanity headquarters near Elston and Ashland avenues.

Hopkins said Wednesday he was confident he has enough votes to move the measure through the City Council’s committee on zoning, landmarks and building standards and get it passed at next week’s council meeting. The ordinance would create a registry to distinguish art from unwanted graffiti and possibly make the city an attraction for art aficionados.

“We think that’s the beginning of really establishing Chicago, believe it or not, as an American capital of street art and as a destination for people who want to experience that and see it for themselves,” Hopkins said. “So that’s a side benefit of this ordinance that we are very excited about and we know that is going to come to fruition.”

Max Temkin, founder of Cards Against Humanity, led the effort behind the ordinance and brainstormed with Chicago artists before reaching out to Hopkins, whose 2nd Ward includes the area around the company’s headquarters. Temkin said he heard from street artists who felt harassed while doing their work, and he thinks the city has a bad history of being unable to distinguish street art from unwanted graffiti.

“Street art represents people claiming civic space for themselves and for the public good,” Temkin said at a news conference. “And to share something really joyful and surprising and meaningful with people.”

The proposed ordinance calls for building owners or property management companies to register murals with the city and pay a fee to cover a physical marker that would be placed on the building

The registry would be maintained by the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and special events which would work with streets and sanitation to create rules to oversee the enforcement of the ordinance. Kelly said there are about 2,000 street murals around the city.

In Wicker Park, one of artist Hebru Brantley’s first murals in Chicago was painted over by city crews earlier this year after it was vandalized with graffiti, according to the city. The Wicker Park Bucktown Special Service Area 33 asked Brantley to create a new mural on the same wall that featured his signature “Flyboy” character, said Brent Norsman, chair of the SSA’s commissioners.

“I used to walk by there all the time, it’s kind of funny how public art holds a place in your heart. When it was gone, I was like ‘wait,’ ” Norsman said. “People in the community reached out to the chamber saying what happened.”

Brantley volunteered his time to create the new mural, Norsman said.

Like the proposed ordinance, the Wicker Park Bucktown Special Service area was planning to create plaques for public art in their neighborhoods to describe and identify each piece, Norsman said. They have been scrambling to finish the process by as soon as next week to make sure Brantley’s new mural doesn’t get mistakenly destroyed.